http://www.detroitmona.com/images/Joseph%20Beuys.jpg

August, 2004

JAN DE GROOT KILLED IN FALL  

AMSTERDAM - The friends of “Grooti” are bewildered. Without warning, Dutch artist Jan de Groot, 37, has jumped from his parents’ apartment and is crushed on the sidewalk below. Later, his parents are discovered beheaded in their beds. Their heads seem to have disappeared completely. The trash is gone through, but nothing of interest is found.

The artist had recently been asked to participate in a museum show entitled PISS OFF! Some friends speculate that he took this commission too much to heart.

“He began to complain about everything,” fellow photographer Frank Yost explains. “Even about the abuse of salmon and other spawning animals. What he began calling the disruption of rhythmic verticality. He became unbearable to us all. And it seemed, more pissed off every day.”

When asked for comment, Jane Speaks, organizing curator for the Detroit Museum of New Art and the exhibition itself, let her public relations department issue a brief epithet: “It may be said that Jan de Groot lived his art to the end.”

 

 

   

CIRCA Art Magazine
Ireland's leading magazine for contemporary visual arts and culture

 

Tuesday, 7 September 2004

Murder mystery: bad news or art sham?

compiled by Isobel Harbison

 

http://detroitmona.com/umBRELLAS%20britened.jpg
Jan De Groot, Paradise Lost. And so are we.

It is hardly unusual for the editor at CIRCA to receive art-news alerts and press releases via e-mail, therefore when we received one from the director of the Detroit Museum of New Art telling us of the tragic death of the young artist Jan de Groot (touted to be exhibiting in the upcoming Piss-Off exhibition with the likes of Sarah Lucas and Sam Taylor-Wood), we believed them, and in a slightly shallow way, mourned his loss. Well, it would have been vulgar not to. The details were mildly gruesome

Without warning, Dutch artist Jan de Groot, 37, has jumped from his parents apartment and is crushed on the sidewalk below. Later, his parents were discovered beheaded in their beds. Their heads seem to have disappeared completely... Jane Speaks, organizing curator for the Detroit Museum of New Art let her public relations department issue a brief epithet: It may be said that Jan de Groot lived his art to the end.

Bizarre, bizarre, bizarre. So I googled this unfortunate man, subject to the whim of his artistic temperament to the very end. However, with the exception of the artist's c.v. (click here), and some images of his work (here), both linked to the Museum's website, there were absolutely no other sites offering his profile. The c.v. may well be false; there seems to be no record of the man in the museums in which he supposedly exhibited. And the MONA website itself is littered with anarchic manifestos boasting hoax exhibitions, as well as a 1996 obituary for the one and only (presumably) Jane Speaks. This must be a truly modern establishment.

Art mysteries are common as muck these days and to be honest they aren't my cup of tea. So I will open this issue to the floor. Readers: have I wasted three hours of my precious life that I will never regain, or is he dead and if so should I apologise? Did Jan de Groot ever exist, and if not then who bothered fabricating his art? Is the Detroit Museum of New Art a fake institution? Has anybody ever been there, or does it merely exist in the heads of several American art anarchists? And if so, that's a lovely idea folks, really it's so avant-garde, but just so irritating. I am going to home to relax with a cup of Earl Grey in front of a reproduction of Vettriano.

visit www.recirca.com

 
May 3, 2005
 
Dear Isobel,
 
As noted below, you have been proven right. Jan de Groot's death was a sham as it turns out. We were all duped on this one.
 
But the museum is not a sham. It is very real, with over 1200 sq meters of exhibition space, and MONA will be celebrating its tenth year of operation in 2006. 
 
MONA is a living institution, being as much about art as the art it exhibits.
 
Warm regards,
Jef Bourgeau
Director,
Museum of New Art (MONA)
 
 
 
 
http://detroitmona.com/Asger%20Jorn.jpg

 

http://detroitmona.com/Corneille.jpg

 

http://detroitmona.com/Karel%20Appel.jpg

from Jan de Groot's new
COBRA series
(top to bottom):
 
Asger Jorn
Corneille
Karel Appel

 

  

DUTCH ARTIST FAKED OWN DEATH

Jan de Groot found alive during police round-up

May 1, 2005

AMSTERDAM – The Dutch photographer, Jan de Groot, who was reported to have committed suicide last year has instead been discovered alive and well. The artist was picked up in a routine dragnet of prostitutes operating illegally in Amsterdam’s De Waal or free zone, most of these immigrants. Police told us that de Groot stood out from the other streetwalkers due to his wearing out-of-season pumps, his awkward application of lipstick,  and by sporting a heavier than normal moustache.

“He was obviously out of his league,” police chief Pieter Koomens remarked. “Plus we’d received quite a few complaints from his johns: that de Groot, or Bootsie as he was known on the street, was totally inadequate despite his, well, you know.”

Responding to the possibility of prosecuting the artist, Chief Koomens responded that de Groot hadn’t really committed any other crime than unlicensed solicitation. He was fined for that and released.

“Yes, it is a crime to commit suicide. The law is clear on that. But there’s nothing in the books for having faked it,” the chief said, but added with a wry smile: “However, unhappy clients may file civil complaints against Bootsie. Our country has many laws concerning services’ fraud, failure to deliver goods and so on. There may be some redress there, some justice of sorts.”

Going back to life as usual, the artist was located by this reporter working happily in his old studio on his latest series of portraits. When asked why he had faked his own death, he argued that his gallery had pushed him to it.

“They told me my work had gone shit lately. We had a big blow-up and they dropped me. They said I was dead as an artist. To make them feel regret, I staged my suicide. I thought I'd show them. But, after my death, my prices plummeted even more. Things just don't work like they used to."

As he dried his new photograph of long dead artist Asger Jorn, he talked about recent events: "Now, after my arrest and all the police hullabaloo, my value has recovered.  The scandal has put my prices through the roof. All in all, I’m glad I was found out. I couldn’t have lasted another day in those heels, in season or out. And my gallery has taken me back.”